I Lived Like A 1950's HOUSEWIFE For 1 WEEK!

Hello darlings! Just thought I would add that this was just an experiment to see what it would have been like to live and follow a schedule in the 1950s. By no means do I believe that all the values they had were right, because there weren’t! But some of the family values like sitting down together for meals, were really nice! I think in today’s society that sort of family time isn’t always prioritised. Remember, vintage style not vintage values! Sending lots of love, Sage xx

Here's a hint my 1950s/1960s mother shared with me; the drapes were not opened in the morning until you were ready for company (house tidy, housewife dressed and hair combed, children fed and husband off to work, etc). Once the drapes were open, the neighboring housewives would know it was okay to come over and have a chat.

Being a housewife and mother in my opinion is a full time job.

My mother WAS a 1950s housewife. Her day was mostly screaming...."wait until your father gets home!" ...to five active children.

My Mum was a 1950’s housewife and carried her routines through to the 80’s until she passed. She had 7 children, her first born in 1955 and I was her last born in 1975. My Mum wore Scholls around the house but heeled shoes or boots when she went out. She woke at 6am daily and did not stop,she’d eventually sit down at 7pm where she’d smoke 1 cigarette and read her paper. I have adopted some of her routines out of respect for her. She was an amazing lady.

Well I think we can all agree that James had the best week ever.

I enjoyed your program! I really was a 1950’s housewife! Actually we didn’t dress each day in stockings. heels, fancy dress and a girdle. But we did wear them for evenings “out” and special occasions. Just as I do today, I wore comfortable clothes like jeans, slacks, sweaters, etc. I didn’t spend the day with so many household chores. My time wasn’t regulated back then. Because I was my own “boss” at home , that made it a lot easier than having to go out to a 9 to 5 job and following someone else’s orders. But then we had one income.. my husband’s. I remember when my friend got a job , having extra money meant she could buy lots of extras. But shortly after, two incomes became almost necessary as people wanted to have more things. Kids didn’t have the kind of activities after school that required driving them. My family activities centered at home. ...I feel like I’m giving away a “secret” because back then we actually had more freedom and the time to spend with what we most valued...family and friends. It was just easier then.

My paternal Grandma said that you would normally wear flats around the house, not heels to save your feet, and you would wear a house dress for cleaning and no girdle. If you went anywhere though (even the grocery store), you then changed into a nicer/non-house dress, heels, and wore a girdle. Once you became a teenager (middle school aged 11-13yrs), you HAD to wear a girdle in public and absolutely to school at all times. You washed your hair typically once per week and bathed daily. My Grandma grew up in rural Colorado. My maternal Grandma grew up in a small town in South Dakota. When it became hot and humid in the heat of summer, the fathers would come home and eat lunch with the family, then stay all afternoon at home relaxing until the heat passed, then they would go work for a few hours later into the evening, and dinner would be at 8-9pm and was called supper instead. The rest of the year the dads would go home for a good lunch then go back to work...but the point being that families ate together for basically all meals of the day. If I recall the kids might have gone home for lunch as well often times.

I loved this! It’s so funny when people think housewives/stay at home moms don’t work 😂😂😂

You didn't make James dress up! 🤣 This guy from 2020 keeps popping up in your life

She calling herself lazy and lousy when she does more in a day than I do in a week

I was a young housewife (19) in the late fifties. I was spoiled by my mother as I was an only child, so I didn't have much experience, but I learned quickly. My mother was the talented homemaker who had a knack for making everything nice, she could sew anything, she was pretty near perfect. Four children and many dogs and cats later, plus a full time job, I could never match up to the lady in the video, or mom. 😊

I loved this video. I can think of three reasons the schedule was so hectic. 1) Lack of experience. A 50's Housewife would have been quicker at doin the chores, dressing and putting on makeup, because she did it all the time. 2) the chores took longer because they you haven't been doing it every day. In the 50s the dusting and cleaning the bathrooms would have been more touch ups than deep cleaning because they would have been done all the time. With these first two, you'd have to do this for at least a month before it all got settled in. 3) and perhaps the biggest reason is all the time it took to set up the cameras and show what you're doing. Anyway, this is a great video, thanks for doing it.

My mom's secret was turning leftovers into another meal. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes becomes cottage pie

Literally we are now expected to do all this PLUS a 40 hour work week. and that's when they decided to take cocaine out of soda

There are actually plenty of good things to learn from the 50'es. For me personally, I like that they took so much pride in their home, and in their appearance. Just those two things alone makes you feel so much better about yourself, and because these areas are not neglected, they are not constantly draining your energy in the back of your head. So you have the mental energy to be social (because you are not embarrassed to let people in, or to let others see you), and to do creative hobbies (because you don't have a super long to do list weighing your down). And waking up to a clean house just an amazing feeling.

I showed this to my Memaw, and she had a lot to say, but I'll summarize it with "aw honey. This is how society wanted us to be. It's not how we were... We were still normal women." 😅 Update: @23:17 she smiled and said yup she's gettin it. P. S. My Memaw was a full time nurse too. Lo

I'm 73 and this takes me back to my childhood. Mom did all those things plus raised two kids. Good copy of a woman's life.

I well remember my mother as a homemaker in the 50s with four children, loss of a pregnancy at 6 months, a miscarriage plus two more full term pregnancies. She had a strict schedule of washing clothes and hanging all of them up on Monday using an old style washer wherein she had to manually run the washed clothes through a wringer. A general sweep through the house making beds (kids made their own if old enough), clearing clutter, sweeping floors manually washing dishes. Kids took turn washing evening dishes if old enough. Tuesday she sat at an Ironrite mangle to iron all the clothes while listening to Arthur Godfrey, taking care of baby or toddlers. During the week she always had a full meal for six on the table at supper but for breakfast she made coffee and dad had cereal. Kids had cereal, too. Mom made sack lunches for dad and all school-aged kids. Wednesday was a full day of top to bottom house cleaning. Thursday all the beds, bunk beds and crib were stripped and made up with clean bedding and dirty sheets and pillow cases were washed, wrung and hung on the line. Continual light cleaning and straightening of house, taking care of baby, sterilizing bottles, washing cloth diapers. Friday at least three little children accompanied her on the city bus to a small supermarket where she got all the groceries on the list she had prepared for the following week’s meals. Then a trip into the five and dime store for fabric and crochet thread and then she corralled all the kids and grocery bags, boarded the city bus and went home to put it all away. Friday supper was all the week’s leftovers, fresh egg salad and by the 60s, also a frozen pizza. Saturday another deep house cleaning while dad tackled the yard, car, cleaned the garage, fixed anything that was broken, put up and took down storm windows, they both tended a huge vegetable garden, all the kids pulled weeds, Saturday night baths for everyone plus mom washed the girls’s hair and set them in rollers and prepared clothes for Sunday Mass. Sunday besides early Mass, my mother prepared the biggest meal of the week, dad set the dining room table with the best dishes and China and we all sat down together at noon. Every day of the week plus after Sunday dinner, we all knelt down together and said the family rosary. Both my parents quit smoking by 1953, neither took drugs and dad had one beer before supper. My mother also sewed ALL the girls clothes, dresses and pajamas for everyone and sewed all her clothes. She knit mittens and scarves, crocheted table clothes and doilies, knit sweaters and even our dishcloths in later years. She was Wonder Woman because she also painted rooms, made curtains and the most perfect pinch pleated drapes. Sadly because of the loss of the baby in 1957, she had a nervous breakdown in spring of 1958, spent three months in a mental hospital and had 14 shock therapy treatments. How could any woman keep up this schedule for years and not go stark raving mad? The oldest child was born in 1943 and the youngest was born in 1965 when she was 43. She was my hero and a saint and I miss her every day.

Watching this video made me realize that the way my grandmother and my mother taught me how to keep house (cleaning, setting the table, looking nice) is exactly how my grandmother lived in the 50’s! I guess I never really thought back on it, but it’s funny to see this way of life sneaking into mine every day, even in small ways!